Book cover



B. BILLET BOOK COVER June 22,1926. 1,589,458

Filed Feb. 26, 1926 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented June 22, 1926 UNITED STATES BARNEY BILLET, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

BOOK

Application filed February This invention relates to removable book covers or wrappers and to attachments for books interchangeable therewith and removable therefrom, serving as a protective a ent against undue wear, soiling or the like and adapted to form a closure member to generally extend the life of books by maintaining them tied against accidental opening. I

My invention generally has for an object thereof the provision of a removable cover for books made of leather, fabricoid or imitation leather serving to act as an attachment for a book to protect the same against undue wear and soiling by handling and further resides in the provision of closure means serving to hold a book against accidental opening, thus additionally preserving the life of the book by preventing its accidental opening and exposing the leaves thereof when it may be handled in any way.

It has been generally practiced by school children, students or the like in the handling of books, whether the property of libraries, the general school system or otherwise not their own, to protect them against undue wear and soiling by wrapping them in some sort of cover member such as paper. While such practice is ordinarily inexpensive, due to the cost of wrapping paper, the inexperience, particularly of children, in wrapping books usually results in negligently fa1ling to properly protect books. Furthermore, the life of covering members so made is not very long and the user is again confronted with the problem of finding some suitable method of protecting the books.

Recently, to prolong the life of the cover members other materials than paper have been used, but here again the skill of the individual comes into play and most often such practice is not resorted to where the individual has to depend upon his own resources for making these home-made cover members.

My invention, therefore, has for an object thereof the provision of ready made book covers interchangeable with books of predetermined standard sizes which may be readily fitted to the books and serve as an eflicient cover member, prolonging the wear of the books and protecting them against undue soiling.

My invention has for another object thereof the provision of an attachment for books which is interchangeable with books of COVER}.

2c, 1926. Serial in. 90,754.

standard, predetermined sizes and which may be readily attached thereto without unduly flexing the book or adversely affecting the binding thereof in positioning the same and when once affixed serves to give a pleasing, neat appearance. The cover member so formed, whcn desired, may be removed from the book so covered and attached to other books of similar standard size to be used over again as long as the natural life of the material of which the cover is made. In the more particular embodiment of my invention, 1t is contemplated to use leather or leather substitutes, such as fabricoid, treated cloth or the like to give unduly long wear and give the general appearance of a more expensive covering, simulating leather.

The invention further has for an object thereof the provision of an attachment for books which is readily removable from the same or adapted to be readily attached there-.- to without unduly flexing the book or ad versely flexing the binding of the book when attaching the same, and further resides in the provision of closure means to hold the book'against accidental opening so that when it is handled, dropped or otherwise maltreated, will not soil ordefaee the inner leaves or pages thereof.

My invention further contemplates the provision of an attachment giving the book generally an ornamental and aesthetic appearance and which may be attached to or combined with any desired volume or book and further resides in the provision of do sure means to prevent accidental opening of the book and to give the owner thereof some element of privacy against inspection. This closure means may be accompanied with ac tual locking devices, having particular utility in private diaries or books having personal attributes on the part of the owner thereof.

For the attainment of these and such further objects as may appear herein or be hereinafter pointed out, I make reference to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a book showing anembodiment of my invention; v

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a book in closed form with my invention attached;

Figure 3 is a partial plan view of my attachment independent of the book;

Figure 4 is a section on a line H of Figure 1 tang lar in form fronrwhich is cute body po -t 10 of dimensions sufficient to include the covers and binding of books of standard size dimensions. Generally there are formed tv-Jo cover elopes or pockets 11 and 12, formed by side flaps and. 1 and endflaps 15 and 16, the excess material at the corners, by cuts along lines 1'? and 1?, being disposed of.

These flaps are folded inwardly so that they fold over uponthe body 10 adjacent corners as 17 and 18 overlapping, and are fixed to form an open pocket by fastening elements 19 passing through the edges of the flaps 1 1 15. This is merely illustrative of the method of binding of the other three corners and the flaps 12, 1.3 and 16.

The remaining eizcess materials, as the tongues 20, form reinforced edges for the binding in av manner which will be understood.

To more permanently form the pocket members previously described, the o ipositely disposec, inwardly turned flaps 15 and 15 have an intermediate edge thereof fastened to each other by suitable fastening and binding means. In my preferred form, one of the pockets as 11, has a permanent binding strap 21 joining the oppositely disposed flaps lo and 15 and preventing their displacement by fastening elements 22. This binding strap 21 may be duplicated for each of the pockets. Preferably, however, the other pocket, as 12, is formed with an adjustable binding strap comprising the straps 23 and 24 having their respective edges 25 and 26 attached to the flaps 15 and 16 by fastening elements as 22, and have their free edges provided with a drawing tie27, preferably by passing through eyelets 28 and 29.

In use with a book such as illustrated in Figure 1 at A, one of the pockets, as 11, is slipped over the cover board A. It is contemplated that these cover members are made in standard sizes corresponding to the standard size books and in this particular case, a cover or Wrapper is chosen corresponding in size to, the dimensions of the covers of the book A. l i I Continuing with the process of attaching the cover tothe book the tie 27 is released from the eyelets 28. and 29 so as to permit the pocket to be readily deformed and permitting of its application to the cover of the book A without unduly flexing the cover to adversely affect the binding of the book. The wrapper is thereaf er drawn taut upon the cover by means of the tie 27, drawing the same ti htly through the eyelets 28 and 29 and knotting the same when the desired tension has been applied.

In this manner it will be observed that l have provided an efficient cover member for books, removable therefrom and inter changeable with books of similar size at the will of the user merely by untying the tie member 2? and unfolding the deformable pocket 12. Thereafter, without any diffr culty, the pocket 11 may he slipped from the cover member A in a manner which will be obvious.

it will be further observed that in order to avoid giving the book any undue thickness, I have chosen fastening elements 19 c 'f the nature such that when impressed through layers such as 18 and 16-, they will be forced into the yielding material which is used to form the covers, and lie flush with the surface thereof.

For purposes of forming a closure in combination with the book A, I provide a fastening member 30 serving to join the opposite pockets 11 and 12 and the book enclosed therein, in closed relation againstacoidental openin For this purpose, the flap 30- has one end thereof 31 permanently fixed on the outer face as to the pocket 12-and at the free edge 32 thereof there is provided a fastening element as in the nature of'a snap fastener 33, coordinating with the male portion of the fastener fixed to the cover 11, as indicated at 34. It will thus be observed that the cover, when positionedupon a book, may have the flap 30 in locked engagement byfineans of the complemental portions of l-'- the fastening element 33 and 3 In this position the book will be guarded against accidental opening and will effectively serve to hold the same closed if accidentally dropped or otherwise adversely handled.

In Figure 5 l have shown a slight modification of the closure element, in which case the closure element 30 is formed at its free end 32 with an eyelet 35 adapted-to engage a turn button afiixed to the cover member coordinating with the eyelet previously de scribed to hold the book closed in a manner similar to the snap fastener previously described inconnection with Figure 2. However, in this instance, the turn button 36 is provided with an eyelet 37 through which may be passed the lock 38 serving permanently to close the book whenthe lock is applied through the eyelet 35. In this manner. I have, provided an attachment for a book serving not only as a cover member but n'iaking it possibleto convertany book free from undesirable inspect-ion where itis desired. by any individual to keep" afprivate diary or bookof personal character.

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A book wrapper comprising a substantially rectangular sheet of material with margins inturned as flaps entirely about the sheet, producing a covering corresponding to the external dimensions of the book to be Wrapped, with the overlapping corners of the inturned flaps interconnected, the end flaps being severed by cuts spaced upon opposite sides of the median line forming a reinforcing told at the middle, and separate straps attached to and extending across between and securing the corners of the flaps formed by said cuts.

A book Wrapper comprising a substantially rectangular sheet of material with margins inturned as flaps entirely about the sheet, producing a covering corresponding to the external dimensions of the book to be Wrapped, with the overlapping corners of the inturned flaps interconnected, the end flaps being severed by cuts spaced upon opposite sides of the median line forming a reinforcing told at the middle, separate straps attached to and extending across be tween and securing the corners of the flaps formed by said cuts, one of said straps being formed of sections stopping short of meeting With an interconnecting member spanning the resultant space.

3. A book cover comprising a substantially rectangular sheet of material having inturned margins forming flaps producing a cover corresponding to the exterior of the book to be covered, said flaps being out upon opposite sides of the median line to form inturned tabs, means permanently attaching the overlapping corners of the inturned flaps, and separate straps permanently secured to the end flaps at the inner corners formed by cuts and extending across from flap to flap, one of said straps being formed of a single piece permanently attached at both ends, the other of said straps being formed in sections permanently attached to the flap stopping short of meeting and connected together by separable connecting means spanning the interval between the ends.

4. A book cover comprising a major portion made from a substantially rectangular sheet of material by turning in narrow margins on all sides to form end flaps for the top and bottom edges of a book cover and side flaps for the side edges thereof, said end flaps each being slit at points equidistant from a median line of the sheet to form tabs to tuck in at the back of the book, means for securing the overlapping corners of the end and side flaps, and straps to connect the inner corners of the end flaps together.

5. A book cover comprising a major portion made from a substantially rectangular sheet of material by turning in narrow margins on all sides to form end flaps for the top and bottom edges of a book cover and said flaps or the side edges thereof, said end flaps each being slit at points equidistant from a median line of a sheet to form tabs to tuck in at the back of the book, means for securing overlapping corners of the end and side flaps, straps to connect the inner corners of the end flaps together, one of said flaps being formed in sections, and means to separably connect the flap sections together.

In Witness whereof, I have signed this specification this 18 day of February, 1926.

BARNEY BILLET. 

